All posts tagged Lorde

Nielsen released their 2014 year-end report today, highlighting how music was consumed over the last year. First, the bad news: Total album sales were down from 2013, with a dip of 11.2%, topping out at 257 million records bought either on CD, cassette, vinyl or digitally. Only four albums topped 1 million in sales, compared to 13 in 2013.

Track sales were down 12.5% as well from the previous year. But on-demand streaming continued to rise, with a 54.5% change from 2013. The total amount of audio streams was 163.9 billion, calculated from AOL, Beats Music, Google Play, Medianet, RDIO, Rhapsody, Slacker, Spotify, Xbox Music, and YouTube/Vevo. Read More »

The Golden Globe nominations arrived this morning and in the Best Original Song category, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association nominated four big pop artists, a producer, and a classic punk musician.

Take a listen to the songs that are up for the Globe this year – it’s one of the toughest categories to pick a clear favorite.

“The Hunger Games” has another heroine in Lorde. For the latest film about the rebel character Katniss Everdeen (“Mockingjay Part 1,” hitting theaters Friday), the young “Royals” singer oversaw the soundtrack album. She commissioned songs from veterans such as Grace Jones and the Chemical Brothers, along with rising acts such as rapper/singer Raury and Sweden’s Tove Lo. Lorde says she drew on her own tastes, while trying to create a unified sound that would evoke Katniss’s quest for survival in a grim world.

Born Ella Yelich-O’Connor in New Zealand, Lorde turned 18 earlier this month. She won two Grammys this year for “Royals,” the biggest hit from her debut album “Pure Heroine.” In addition to executive producing the “Mockingjay” soundtrack, she contributed to 4 songs on the album. She recorded vocals for “Meltdown” by the Belgian songwriter Stromae, which also features Pusha T, Q-Tip and HAIM. Her haunting “Yellow Flicker Beat” serves as the movie’s main anthem, and got a remix by Kanye West. Her Bright Eyes cover, “The Ladder Song,” closes the album. (You can stream the soundtrack online.)

Lorde talked with Speakeasy about the challenge of coaxing music out of other artists, misunderstood jokes on Twitter and almost blowing her deadline for the soundtrack. Read More »

Lorde contributed two new songs, including the first single “Yellow Flicker Beat” and the album’s closer “Ladder Song.” Other notable names include Kanye West remixing “Yellow Flicker Beat,” Major Lazer teaming with pop star Ariana Grande, the Chemical Brothers dueting with R&B crooner Miguel, and a supergroup of sorts that features Lorde, Pusha T, Haim and Belgium artist Stromae on the opening cut “Meltdown.”

Ever the selfless birthday girl, the Grammy Award-winning artist Lorde kept her word, and at 6 a.m. EST on the dot, the video for “Yellow Flicker Beat,” the lead single from “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1” soundtrack, appeared on her official YouTube channel.

Despite Lorde’s previous comments that the song is her attempt to get inside the head of “Hunger Games” protagonist Katniss Everdeen – and the fact that she curated the “Mockingjay” soundtrack – the corresponding video is the antithesis of any sort of Panem propaganda.

There are no scenes from the coming film, and you won’t find the New Zealander dressed in any of Cinna’s astonishing sartorial creations – although, Lorde does pull off a nice Sam Smith pompadour.

The “Hunger Games” soundtrack now has an official tracklist and it’s full of heavy hitters, as expected.

The Lorde-curated collection will feature new songs from rising pop stars Charli XCX, Bat for Lashes, and open with a tune from Belgian singer-songwriter Stromae, which features Lorde, HAIM, and rappers Pusha T and Q-Tip. Kanye West also pops up with a remix of a Lorde track called “Flicker,” which may be a new version of her “Hunger Games” single “Yellow Flicker Beat.” The soundtrack will feature 14 songs in total, with one unknown still remaining.

“Hunger Games” fans got the next installment from the upcoming Lorde-curated soundtrack to “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1” today, when the pop artist premiered a new track appropriately titled “This Is Not a Game” on BBC’s Zane Lowe show. The track features vocals from R&B star Miguel and production by electronic titans the Chemical Brothers.

Unlike Lorde’s first track“Yellow Flicker Beat,” the song sounds much more hard-hitting, with the Miguel taking a majority of the vocals, while Lorde pops in from time to time with the phrase “There It Is.” Like any good “Hunger Games” song, the track has an inspirational feel to it, as Miguel croons about staring at gladiators, revolutions, and how sweet victory is.

It doesn’t matter that Grammy-winning artist Lorde‘s song “Royals” isn’t about baseball or Kansas City – two San Francisco radio stations are refusing to play the New Zealand singer’s breakout hit for the duration of the World Series. In solidarity with the San Francisco Giants, who face off against the Kansas City Royals in Game 1 on Tuesday, KFOG Radio and 96.5 KOIT have temporarily eliminated “Royals” from their playlists.

The maneuver is understandable though, at least from San Francisco’s perspective, as Lorde has admitted she was inspired to write “Royals” after seeing a 1976 photograph of Royals ballplayer George Brett signing autographs. Not to mention this pic of the pop star holding up a Brett Royals jersey she received as a gift from the retired athlete himself doesn’t do much to help any arguments that she’s an impartial spectator. Read More »

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julianne Moore in a scene from “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1″

Lionsgate

Just as Katniss Everdeen‘s (Jennifer Lawrence) return trip to her now-decimated homeland of District 12 was designed to tug at her heartstrings, so too was the latest “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1” trailer for moviegoers.

Soundtracked by “Yellow Flicker Beat,” the film’s ominous Lorde-crooned lead single, the “Return to District 12” preview follows Katniss, recently rescued from the Quarter Quell (the setting of the previous “Hunger Games” sequel, “Catching Fire“) as she witnesses the extent of the Capitol’s fury firsthand.

Adding to the trailer’s already-haunting tone, “Return to District 12″ features the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as rebel commander Plutarch Heavensbee, in voice-over. “We need to make it personal for [Katniss],” says Hoffman. “Let her see what the Capitol did to District 12.” Read More »

Lorde returned today with “Yellow Flicker Beat,” her first new song since the release of her Grammy-Award winning debut “Pure Heroine” last year. The song is the lead single for “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1” soundtrack and she says that it’s her attempt to get inside the head of Katniss.

“I’m a princess cut from marble,” Lorde croons in the opening line, moments before treading down a darker path: “The scars that mark my body, they’re silver and gold.” From there, she sings about fires, heading home, courage, and “yellow flicker beats” sparking up her heart. It’s a song about “Hunger Games”-style empowerment, told through woozy Lorde-ian beats.

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.